Green Flag 10.26.07: Roush Hour After Martinsville
Posted by Jim Carson on 10.26.2007
Carl and Matt need to learn how to get along ... maybe from Lewis and Fernando.
Before we get started with the motorsports developments, here's showing that our thoughts are with the wildfire victims and evacuees in southern California. The racing community is not escaping scot-free; among the homes are in danger are those of NHRA Funny Car points leader Ron Capps and his car owner Don "the Snake" Prudhomme. And Orange Show Speedway and its surrounding fairgrounds facilities in San Bernardino CA are being used as a shelter.
The volunteers and evacuees there are certainly cooperating more than a notable pair of racing teammates have been doing lately.
BACKFLIP THIS, MATT
Last week's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Martinsville featured 20 cautions, with a lot of your typical short track bumping and grinding. The Wingboxcars are more durable and can be more susceptible to that type of contact; Kurt Busch took a heck of a lick against the wall after flattening a right front tire, and he still finished on the lead lap.
But it's one particular moment of contact that's drawn the most attention, and also its aftermath. Matt Kenseth gave a tap to Backflip Boy to pick up a spot, and Edwards lost a handful of positions as a result. Kenseth eventually finished fifth and Edwards 11th. Both drivers are part of the Roush-Fenway Racing stable and also part of something related to the standings that rhymes with "disgrace."
Then well after the fans and some of the race teams had departed, Kenseth was about to be interviewed by the Speed Channel when Backflip Boy came over and gently pushed him aside to talk to him. As they were about to separate on their own, Kenseth said something else, and Backflip Boy cocked his fist. It's a clip that has been replayed numerous times on the various networks and Internet clips. That led to admissions that Kenseth and Edwards haven't talked much for most of the season, and warnings from the Jack in the Hat that they cannot extend their hostilities to the next race and wreck Roush's cars. Backflip Boy later took full blame for his actions and pledged to be a better teammate.
Teammates upset at each other happens frequently in racing, especially Nextel Cup. Baloney Stewart and Hurricane Hamlin have questioned each other recently, and Shrub was pissed at his Hendrick teammates for not drafting with him in the July race at Daytona. Johnny Sauter got upset with Happy Harvick a few years ago, and it led to Sauter getting dismissed from his ride with Richard Childress a few weeks later. This was almost nothing, especially with the way Backflip Boy grinned after cocking his fist at Kenseth; no one who seriously wants to knock your block off will look like that while clenching, especially with the goofy grin that Backflip Boy displays.
They're making a mountain out of a molehill here. The guy with the Speed Channel shirt in the video clip, Bob Dillner, is good at that. Dillner knows his stuff in NASCAR and is a fine advocate for grassroots short track racing, but he can also be quite the shit stirrer. Remember the controversy last year about Harvick using illegal wheels? It turned out to be false, and Dillner created it all. It led to Harvick and his wife Delana refusing interviews with anyone from the Speed Channel for the rest of the 2006 season. When Backflip Boy came over to Kenseth, Dillner was probably telling the Speed cameraman to keep it rolling, and just standing back and picturing the reaction by the NASCAR community. At least Dillner isn't doing play-by-play for Speed or anyone else anymore; he used to begin ARCA and ASA telecasts with "Hold on to your lugnuts. It's time to go racing," when the green flag dropped.
This dispute certainly isn't going to force either Kenseth or Backflip Boy out of a ride with Jack Roush. But a similar situation has developed in Formula One, and it'll probably mean a marquee move in F1's version of Silly Season.
McGLARING WEAKNESSES
The feud between McLaren-Mercedes F1 drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso will soon end, because Alonso is likely headed out of the McLaren camp after one season and back to Renault, the team with whom he won the 2005 and '06 world driving championships. Both have been, in one way or the other, asserting that the other teammate has been receiving preferential treatment this year by the team.
Hamilton, who was seeking to become the first rookie ever to win the F1 championship, has to be feeling especially down after the F1 finale in Brazil, and the previous race two weeks before in China when he slid off a wet pit road entrance into a gravel trap and gave up some sure points. Then in Brazil, Hamilton and Alonso were blocked a little at the start by Ferrari teammates Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. Hamilton made a move to try and grab third from Alonso, and it resulted in him skidding out of line and back into seventh. Later in the race Hamilton had something electrical go wrong and cut down his power; he was as far as 11th before finishing seventh after four cars in front of him fell out. But Hamilton didn't need to get by his teammate Alonso on the first lap, or any lap; sometimes there's a time where you just ride.
But it wasn't enough; Raikkonen won the Brazilian GP and Massa (which is Portuguese for "blocker") took second. The final F1 standings: Raikkonen 110, Hamilton 109, Alonso 109 (no asinine "chase" here). This was after Hamilton was more than a full event's worth of points up on both guys with two races left. Ouch. Rookie mistakes, although he's still probably the highest-impact rookie in any sport in 2007.
The debate over the F1 title may not be over. The FIA is still investigating the fuel temperature (what?) of three cars that finished fourth, fifth and sixth (two BMW-Sauber team cars and one from the Williams team) and whether or not their fuel was artificially cooled to excess of F1 sporting regulations. If those three guys get Dairy Queened, that would move Hamilton up to fourth in the final rundown and give him 112 points, and the whole enchilada. For now, it's Raikkonen celebrating. Hopefully Hamilton will win a real title really soon ... but in 2008 or beyond.
Gee, if this gets called back upon further review, it'll make the reversal of a winning touchdown in an NFL game look like something from Pop Warner ball. Please FIA, end this on the track and not in the courts.
WHAT CHASE?
---NASCAR NEXTEL CUP
1. Jeff Gordon, 4864
2. Jimmie Johnson, 4381
3. Tony Stewart, 4313
4. Denny Hamlin, 4161
5. Carl Edwards, 4122
6. Clint Bowyer, 4119
7. Kyle Busch, 4057
8. Matt Kenseth, 4013
9. Jeff Burton, 3964
10. Kevin Harvick, 3831
11. Kurt Busch, 3777
12. Martin Truex Jr., 3758
13. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 3626
14. Ryan Newman, 3560
---NHRA TOP FUEL
1. Rod Fuller, 1490
2. Larry Dixon, 1373
3. Brandon Bernstein, 1302
4. Tony Schumacher, 1296
5. J.R. Todd, 1133
6. Bob Vandergriff, 1087
7. Melanie Troxel, 1083
8. Doug Herbert, 1004
9. Whit Bazemore, 989
10. Dave Grubnic, 940
11. Cory McClenathan, 923
12. Doug Kalitta, 917
13. Hillary Will, 849
14. Clay Millican, 785
---NHRA FUNNY CAR
1. Ron Capps, 1326
2. Robert Hight, 1259
3. Tony Pedregon, 1225
4. Gary Scelzi, 1138
5. Jack Beckman, 1128
6. John Force, 1093
7. Mike Ashley, 1076
8. Del Worsham, 966
9. Tommy Johnson Jr., 896
10. Jim Head, 885
11. Kenny Bernstein, 859
12. Cruz Pedregon, 844
13. Jeff Arend, 824
14. Ashley Force, 815
---NHRA PRO STOCK
1. Greg Anderson, 1745
2. Dave Connolly, 1677
3. Jeg Coughlin, 1427
4. Allen Johnson, 1194
5. Jason Line, 1138
6. Kurt Johnson, 1070
7. Richie Stevens, 948
8. Larry Morgan, 937
9. V. Gaines, 922
10. Warren Johnson, 895
11. Jim Yates, 830
12. Max Naylor, 745
13. Greg Stanfield, 719
14. Kenny Koretsky, 681
---NHRA PRO STOCK BIKE
1. Matt Smith, 1138
2. Andrew Hines, 1042
3. Angelle Sampey, 900
4. Chip Ellis, 827
5. Peggy Llewellyn, 795
6. Craig Treble, 766
7. Karen Stoffer, 744
8. Eddie Krawiec, 711
9. Steve Johnson, 683
10. Chris Rivas, 636
11. Antron Brown, 603
12. Matt Guidera, 562
13. Hector Arana, 526
14. Geno Scali, 462
UNSUNG RACERS OF THE WEEK
We have two of 'em, and both competed in the IHRA World Finals at Rockingham NC. The International Hot Rod Association is like a rival to NHRA, except that everyone knows that the competition in NHRA is superior to IHRA; some racers run full-time in IHRA and make a nice living (better than they'd do if they ran a full NHRA schedule and had a bunch of first-round losses and DNQs), but when they cross over into NHRA at events such as the U.S. Nationals at Indy, they usually get overwhelmed (multi-time IHRA Top Fuel champ Clay Millican still hasn't won in NHRA this year, although he's coming closer). The other noticable difference between NHRA and IHRA is that IHRA has another professional category called Pro Modifieds, which means cars that race teams ... um, modify somehow. Plus IHRA runs one or two national events each year in Canada.
Anyway, Bruce Litton erased a rather large deficit late in the season to capture the Top Fuel championship, and he did it without having the sanctioning body manipulate the points to destroy the integrity of the sport of drag racing. And Pro Mod driver Quain Scott gets the other honor because of what he did in the first qualifying round; longtime driver Randy McCorkle passed away earlier this year, and was cremated, and Scott packed half of McCorkle's ashes into his parachutes and had them spread over the top end of Rockingham Dragway when he released the chutes at the end of the run.
That's dedication...at least more than I've been showing lately. Enjoy the weekend.
